This invention relates to an automated livestock feeder, particularly, to a device wherein a feed supporting tray is tripped and allowed to fall by means of gravity after being released by a rotating tray control flange.
Horses and other livestock living in a natural setting tend to graze for 15 or more hours in a 24 hour period. Therefore, for optimum health, horses and other domestic livestock which are not on pasture should be fed several times per day, at regular intervals and at regular times each day. However, feeding this often and on a regular schedule can be difficult for an owner due to work schedules, sickness, emergencies, vacations away from home, or inclement weather. Although it is envisaged that the invention could be used to feed other animals, it will be specifically described in relation to horses.
Therefore, there is an ongoing need for an automated feeder which reliably dispenses pre-measured quantities of grain and/or flake hay at predetermined times.
The illustrated invention is an automated livestock feeder for storing and dispensing food such as hay or granular feed such as grain, in a flexible rounded feed container, to an animal at predetermined intervals. The invention utilizes a feed tray control flange on which a feed tray supporting the hay or granular feed in a flexible rounded feed container sets. At a predetermined feeding time a motor rotates the flanged latch to release the tray, which rotates on its hinges and dispenses the feed.
The invention generally comprises a housing and one or more upper housings stacked contiguously on top of the housing. Each housing and all upper housings contain a feed tray having a rear edge hinged to the side walls and a front edge terminating in proximity to the front wall.
The housing and all upper housings also contain a motor housing attached to the middle of the front wall with a roof slanted at a sufficient angle to prevent hay or a rounded feed container suitable for holding granular feed from catching on the motor housing. Each motor housing contains a motor connected to a tray control flange which is supported by the motor housing and which, in turn, supports the feed tray in the first, horizontal storage position, and which, when rotated by the motor to the second, slanted dispense position, releases the feed tray. The motor is electrically connected to an energy source through a timer relay/mechanical switch.
When an owner wishes to reset and then refill the automated feeder they activate the mechanical switch and lift the feed tray from its slanted dispensing position to its horizontal storage position and release the mechanical switch when the tray control flange is in a position which supports the feed tray in its horizontal storage position. The feed tray also has one or more compressible sound deadening pads mounted underneath the feed tray in proximity to the housing front wall.
The automated feeder can have a removable door which fits into the open space at the back opening of the housing and/or upper housings. The door has door tabs which extend from the sides of the door and fit into corresponding door hanging slots in the sides of the housing and/or upper housing which are aligned with the door tabs. A door lock is rotatably mounted directly above any of the door tabs in a horizontal slit. The door lock is moveable between a first position in which the door lock prevents the door from being raised from the downward bending portion of the door hanging slot, and a second position in which said door lock does not impeded the door from being raised and therefore, removed.
Other features and many attendant advantages of the invention will become more apparent upon a reading of the following detailed description together with the drawings in which like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout.